He was the younger brother of LeRoy Sprankle, who would also become an athletics icon, most notably in Eastern Tennessee and South Florida.
At the age of 12, his family moved to Canton, Ohio, where he participated in athletics and attended high school.
In 1936, he left to become the assistant athletic director and head coach of cross country, football, and indoor and outdoor track at Albion College.
Over the course of the 22 years he coached at Albion, his teams won 23 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) championships which is currently tied for seventh all-time in that conference.
Sprankle's greatest success, however, came with the cross country team, which won 10 MIAA championships in his 12 years of coaching, from 1947 to 1958.